You may recognize the byline Constance Garcia-Barrio, a long-time Mt. Airy resident who has been contributing freelance articles to the Local for 17 years (and many other publications as well), but her own life story is just as compelling as that of any people she has written about.

Garcia-Barrio was born in 1946 in West Philadelphia. Her mother, Cleoria, was told by a teacher at Barry Elementary School that her children, Constance and Victor, “would not make it in school.”

That dismal prediction, however, lit a fire under both children, who wound up succeeding far beyond expectations. Victor, who died three years ago, graduated from Harvard University Law School, and Constance earned a master’s degree from Temple University and a doctorate degree from the University of Pennsylvania, both in Romance languages. (She was the only African American in the program at Penn, where she had a teaching fellowship.) She taught Romance languages at West Chester University from 1990-2007 and Community College of Philadelphia from 2008-2012 but left “because of discipline problems at Community College. I got tired of dealing with kids who were not there to learn, so I have been doing a lot of freelance writing since then.”

Garcia-Barrio has also learned to speak Mandarin (Chinese) fluently, studying both in the U.S. for two and a half years and in the People’s Republic of China as well. “I was able to communicate with people in Beijing and two other cities in China,” she recalled. “People there were curious, not hostile, to me. They were shocked that I could speak Mandarin. I worked on it eight hours a day.”

Garcia-Barrio has written a novel, “Blood Grip,” about an enslaved family that escaped their bondage in the mid-19th century and came to Philadelphia. The book is also about herbal remedies, cooking, and aspects of Yoruba culture. (Garcia-Barrio is herself an initiated Yoruba priestess.)

The novel was influenced by the stories of two of her own ancestors who were both born into slavery in Spotsylvania County, Virginia, and who both lived more than 100 years — a great-great-grandmother, Lucy Wilson (1824-1929), and great-grandmother Rose “Maw” Wilson Ware (1852-1965), who raised their white “owners’” children. “Rose knew how to read, so people would bring documents to her so she could read them,” said Garcia-Barrio, who has a 1915 photo that shows Lucy and Rose and the white children they cared for.

“My great-great-grandfather, Robert Wilson, would get whipped,” said Garcia-Barrio. “He was sold to a plantation in the deep South. Lucy was given the choice to be sold South with him or remain in Spotsylvania County. She chose to stay. It was known that if you were sold South, you’d work on a sugar or rice plantation and would not live long.”

Garcia-Barrio was married for almost 30 years. She met her husband, Luis Manuel Garcia, in Spain. (The Barrio family goes back to the Dominican Republic.) “The marriage was a shock to both families,” she said. “Luis earned a Ph.D in Spanish Literature at Penn and became a court interpreter and translator. He also did work for the IRS but died in 2002 at age 61.”

She and her husband had one son, Manuel. “He became schizophrenic and never got well,” she said. “Things were so bad that I could not let him back in the house. He left a hospital in Norristown once and walked to Mt. Airy in the middle of the night. I advocated for him for 22 years. He died at age 47 in 2022. I wrote a lot about grief and did grief counseling for four years, meeting with other mothers who had lost children. It was very helpful. I even wrote an article on where people could find grief counseling.

“I liked my son and loved him, but I was in despair because it was out of my hands. He’d go into the hospital and then be OK for a while but then come out and start using again. He did the best he could. I got to the place where I figured out how to live with the grief, but I did a lot of crying.

“I fainted on Germantown Avenue one day and hit my face on the cement, cracking teeth. I thought I had a mini-stroke. I was ready to give up, but they had a memorial service for Manuel at St. Luke’s Episcopal Church (in Germantown) in October of 2022. I appreciated that people came. After the fall, I felt that I could not handle life any more. ... In Easter of 2023, though, I started a relationship with a man who is a brave soul. We met in a grief group run by the medical examiner’s office.”

Garcia-Barrio also had spinal surgery in March of this year at Jefferson University Hospital and has been doing physical therapy at Fit Life in Mt. Airy. She also gets psychological therapy by taking part in anti-Trump protests every week in Center City. She takes public transportation because she gave up driving after two of her cars were stolen, and a third one was set on fire and destroyed.

Another form of therapy has been volunteering as a tutor for the past year at Henry, Houston, and Roosevelt elementary schools every week and also volunteering as a library assistant. “In spite of everything,” she said, “I’ve had opportunities most Black people have not had, so I feel I have to give back.”

Len Lear can be reached at Lenlear@chestnuthilllocal.com.